NEW YORK -- Bruce Willis is supposed to be giving a press conference on behalf of his new movie this morning.

And yes, he does have a lot to say about the upcoming 16 Blocks, in which he plays a corrupt, burned-out cop who's given the opportunity to redeem himself.

But a Willis press conference -- his preferred way of communicating with a media he often dislikes -- also tends to be a performance. And it's entertainment quotient rises when it becomes a series of rants.

So he's in prime form today as he launches into a tirade against Entertainment Weekly magazine; explains why he hates being labelled a Republican; and, in typical Bruce Willis fashion, both defends and denounces violence and suggests policemen should be paid lots more money. ....

Beneath the brashness there's a committed actor who also thinks long and hard about the society of which he's a part. Willis is also smart enough to know that 16 Blocks offers him his best role in years.

"I'm from Jersey and I have a strong affinity towards working-class people," he declares. That's why he likes cops. "I believe with any job that requires you possibly to get shot at or get shot dead, you should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"These guys don't get paid anything. Yet they go out there and do it and there's not a lot of them out there and they're the last line between us and the wolves and the chaos that's out in the world.

"All these guys -- cops, EMT workers, men and women, emergency room doctors and nurses, people that every night have to see horrific things -- there should be thousands of films done about these guys. And they should get paid more money. A lot more money."

Moments later, he's off on a tangent when a reporter suggests that Willis is one of the few Hollywood actors who is "proud" to be a Republican.

"Let me stop you right there!" Willis interrupts.

"Everybody write this down because I'm sick of answering this.

"I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government. I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop pissing on my money and your money -- the tax dollars that we give 50 or 40 per cent of every year, and I want them to be fiscally responsible, and I want those goddam lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican.

"But other than that, I want the government to take care of people who need help -- like the kids in foster care, the half million kids in orphanages right now.... I want them to take care of the elderly and give them free medicine, give them whatever they need. There's tons, billions and billions of dollars, that are just being wasted. Okay? I hate government. I'm apolitical. Write that down."

... Almost immediately, Willis gets asked a political question anyway: is it ever legitimate to use violence in order to do the right thing?

"Occasionally -- when push comes to shove," replies Willis, who adds that he's not a violent man and doesn't advocate violence. But the United States and other countries in the free world "should do whatever it takes to end terrorism in the world." He's not just talking about the Middle East.

"I'm also talking about going to Columbia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade. It's killing this country. It's killing all the countries that coke goes into.... It's just a plant that they grow, and these guys are growing it like it's corn or tobacco or any other thing. By the time it gets here, it becomes a billion-dollar industry.

"And I think that's a form of terrorism as well."

... He then springs to the defence of controversial writer James Frey who received a verbal flaying from a furious Oprah Winfrey on her show last month for embellishing parts of his best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces.

"That's a great book," Willis says defiantly. He's unhappy that Frey had been "sucker-punched on Oprah, one of the most powerful women on television, just to grind her own axe about it."

"Hey Oprah -- you had President Clinton on your show. And if [he] didn't lie about a couple of things, I'm going to set myself on fire right now."

IMHO The Gauntlet was a poor movie--absolutely unbelieveable! The hero, Clint and girlfriend, drove a bus through a downtown area, through a regular army of cops who were shooting automatic weapons at it and no one was hurt, including the cops on both sides and in front and rear of the bus- puhleese! The bad guy was the chief of police, sort of a re-run of a previous Dirty Harry film.

Ditto, except for the logical disconnect between these two statements:

To which I'd add:

"I believe with any job that requires you possibly to get shot at or get shot dead, you should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm a firm believer that you pay what it takes to get people to take the job, but no more. If you paid what Willis proposes,, you'd not only bankrupt government, but you'd get applicants who are there just for the paycheck, not to risk their lives. They'd be the first ones to abandon ship at crunch time. Not to mention that the jobs would be doled out as patronage to politician's relatives and other favored people. Pretty much what the New Orleans PD was.

43
posted on 03/04/2006 12:46:33 PM PST
by John Jorsett
(scam never sleeps)

"I'm also talking about going to Columbia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade. It's killing this country. It's killing all the countries that coke goes into.... It's just a plant that they grow, and these guys are growing it like it's corn or tobacco or any other thing. By the time it gets here, it becomes a billion-dollar industry.

All the countries that coke goes into... includes Mexico, and impacts our border security problems, which are escalating as we speak.

Hell, if he's a registered Republican from California, Willis can do and say anything he wants and the CRP will support him. We've got a European liberal who's convinced the California Republican Party leadership that he's a conservative Republican.

"I believe with any job that requires you possibly to get shot at or get shot dead, you should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars."

So where does Mr little government get the money to pay our military this kind of money?

"These guys don't get paid anything. Yet they go out there and do it and there's not a lot of them out there and they're the last line between us and the wolves and the chaos that's out in the world.

Bruce, you need to get a gun or highly paid bodyguards as your last line of defense.

"I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government. I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop pissing on my money and your money -- the tax dollars that we give 50 or 40 per cent of every year, and I want them to be fiscally responsible, and I want those goddam lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican.

"But other than that, I want the government to take care of people who need help -- like the kids in foster care, the half million kids in orphanages right now.... I want them to take care of the elderly and give them free medicine, give them whatever they need. There's tons, billions and billions of dollars, that are just being wasted. Okay? I hate government. I'm apolitical. Write that down."

Sounds like he wants us to spend more on welfare programs? Hard to tell. If he wants to be helpful in the fight he should talked his Hollywood associated into supporting Arnold agains the unions.

Actually it is "Promote the general welfare" no where in the Constitution does it advance the providing of "free services" to a segment of the society. You should look into what "free medical care" has done to the countries now providing it and how medical care declines in a government run medical society.

I had heard that he was making a movie about Deuce Four, the unit that Michael Yon was embedded with and wrote about (best blog!)in his blog, MichaelYonblogspot.com. Bruce Willis also went to the Deuce Four banquet when their tour ended, and they were back in the states.

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